The increase in fake news

Fake news has
become an increasingly worrying phenomenon in Italy. Not only bogus reports
appear daily on social media but also in newspapers, mostly as a result of
journalists’ failure to check sources.

To crack down
on this emergency, the Italian government has launched an online service where
people can report what they think might be fake news via a “red button” system
on the website of Italy’s postal police, the division that tackles online
crime.

The alerts
will be analysed through a special software by a dedicated team that is going
to establish, on the basis of its source, if the information can be trusted.

In the run-up
to the 4th of March election, senior politicians have vented concerns that fake
news could sway public opinion.

The interior
minister, Marco Minniti, reassured the public opinion saying that the
initiative was only aimed at protecting citizens from clamorous and flagrantly
unfounded news and was not intended to interfere with the political campaign.

Franco
Gabrielli, the national police head, emphasised that they would rely on mechanisms
already in use to provide a more trustworthy service.

However, this
has soon become a controversial issue, because most of the fake news is
political and it’s not entirely clear how the police will verify what is fake
and what is not. A key concern is the fact that the Police don’t define “fake
news” anywhere. The official press release only refers to “false and
tendentious news” which could be against the law if it disturbs the public
order. This grants the police a great deal of power in deciding what kind of
information is suitable online.

The
inconvenient truth is perhaps that fake news can be seen as a consequence of
the crisis of journalism. It is striking that much fake news appears in
newspapers, not just on social media.

Newspapers
should check their sources and pay their journalists the right amount of money
which a professional journalist deserves.

Concerns over
fake news in Italy first mounted in 2016 ahead of the referendum on the
constitutional reform which caused the resignation of the former prime minister
Matteo Renzi. On that occasion, a network of untrustworthy news sites was said
to have influenced the outcome of the vote.

Matteo Renzi
called on Facebook to stop the spreading of fake news before the vote of the 4th
of March. Facebook has welcomed the challenge by tasking a team of independent
fact checkers in Italy to hunt down and reveal fake news on the social network.
This will be the first time that professional fact-checkers will have a
“proactive role” in finding bogus news on the site.